My online video classes on Craftsy.com

I am thrilled to have two online video classes "Sketching the City in Pen, Ink and Watercolor" and “Sketching Landscapes in Pen, Ink and Watercolor” on Craftsy.com. These courses are both 2.5 hours long, and in seven lessons we cover all the steps I use when I’m sketching in the field. "Sketching the City" is all about the things I love to sketch in urban settings: brick and stone facades, windows and doors, light and shadow, as well as all the elements that give a city life such as pedestrians, foliage, signage and utility poles. In both courses we work in pen and ink and finish our sketches in watercolor. In "Sketching Landscapes" we start with a peek through my sketchbooks (yes, I carried them all to Denver in my suitcase!) and a glance at the materials I use on location. From there we journey to the Flatirons in Boulder at sunrise to work on composition and value sketches. Back in the studio, I go through the step-by-step painting of different types of skies, and then draw and paint the Flatirons scene, along with other common landscape elements such as trees and foregrounds, adding in texture and darks along the way. I hope that breaking it all down into steps will make it easy enough for any viewer to try out the steps on their own.

It was an interesting and exhilarating experience to create these courses, but I couldn’t have done it without the help and guidance of all the talented people at Craftsy. In preparation, I had to really think through the steps of how I work, and this helped immensely during the shoot. You’ll find plenty of great shots of my palette, so you can see how I mix colour for each scene and how different types of pens create texture.

If you haven’t seen the Craftsy platform yet, you’ll be impressed by the way it works. You can speed up or slow down the video, make notes, ask me questions, post your projects and see what other students are working on. As an instructor, it’s an interactive experience for me too, since I can answer individual questions and give feedback on projects (it’s almost like being in one of my summer workshops). And once you buy the class, you can watch it as often as you like.

I’ll be posting new sketches on the projects pages too. I’m thrilled with how my online classes turned out and I look forward to seeing your projects. So get out there and do some sketching!